By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.

                  18-1-2025.

A woman Police Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Naomi Isah, converted to Islam,  just as a ranking Police Officer in Kano State, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Daniel Ameh, accepted the same religion at the Kano Emir’s Palace. Now known as ACP Muhammed, he is one of the most upright police officers in this country, who once rejected a $200,000 bribe from armed robbers. Uprightness is one of the many virtues Islam has been teaching men to be.

Some people might dismiss the conversions of many non Muslims to Islam, as forced on them by their new Islamic environments, but let such doubters explain why the non Muslims who have been living in the area for a long time, were not forced to accept Islam.

Islam does not force a non Muslim to accept the religion, but only forbids a Muslim woman from marrying a non Muslim man. But it ALLOWS a Muslim man to marry a non Muslim woman, if he wishes to do so, for the reason that the religion recognises the man as the head of the family. The Muslim Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is married to Pastor (Senator) Remi Tinubu, a high ranking Christian personality in the country.

Unlike those who are enticed to join other faiths to receive or make huge sums of money, people voluntarily choose to join Islam not expecting to make money. It is the justice, fairness and equality in the religion that attracts more adherents to it. It preaches justice and fairness to the point where God says ‘a just ruler, even if he is an unbeliever, will persevere in his rule, whereas an unjust ruler, even if he is a believer, will not last on the throne’.

The religion is described as the most phenomenally rising faith in the world, with the Western world not left behind. The London Central Mosque is bigger and more beautiful than the Abuja Central Mosque. And lots of the activities in Mosques and places of acquiring Islamic knowledge, are often done by individuals, or a few devotees, but rarely with cap in hand, as is common in Nigeria.

Many leading cities in the United Kingdom (UK), like London, Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford, Oldham, Rochdale and Brighton, have Muslim politicians as Mayors (equivalent to governors in Nigeria). The immediate past Prime Minister of the UK (President in Nigeria),Honourable Rishi Sunak, is a Muslim of Indian descent.

A British man, Paul Williams, said in a television interview that, “Religion in Britain has been declining, and has been on very steep decline for a number of decades now, and the trajectory is to continue the decline. But, the one religion that isn’t declining in Britain is Islam.

“I was in Birmingham a couple of years ago, I was talking to this guy, Asrar Rashid. He is the author of this book (he showed the book), Islam Answers Atheism’, which I really recommend. By the way, Birmingham is Britain second, probably is Britain’s second city. He said to me about 40% of people in Birmingham are Muslims. That is a very high percentage.

“The first generation of Muslims arrived, what, in the 1950s, 1960s? They weren’t necessarily practicing Muslims. They had children, obviously. So, I said to him, about Professor Linda Woodhead, you know, ‘religion on the decline, secularism, materialism’. I said to him, ‘what about youth in Britain, in Britain’s second city, are they praying are they fasting? “Oh yeah, they are more religious than their parents”.

“So what we are seeing in England when it comes to Muslims is that not only are the youth holding to their faith, and they are praying five times a day, and they are increasingly religious more than their own parents. And now that is incredible. And I said wao, isn’t it amazing in England? But someone who knows Germany, said, “Oh no. It is the same thing in Germany, it is like that in other places as well. In Europe, Muslims are not loosing their faith, because the young ones are holding on to it. That is good for the future”.

 

It is understood by this writer that some Churches in Britain have turned into a places of exercise, where members gather periodically to take a stroll through any nearby forest, at the end of which they come back to pick up their things and go back to where they came from or to any place of their choosing, as long as it was not another Church.

Even in the very materialistic United States (US), Islam is becoming a religion that is growing at an astonishing pace that may not take it long to become the religion of choice in the country. It is becoming very popular in many big cities in the country and the neighbouring countries.

Of course, some women may do it for the purpose of marriage, but such converts are in the minority.

Majority of the converts, whatever their may be their gender, do so for the pure love of the religion. It offers ABSOLUTE peace of mind and the realisation that abundance of material rewards does not equate to real happiness, but worship of One God.

Islam has given the woman a special place more than any other religion in the world. Before the coming of Prophet Muhammad, the last Messenger of Allah to bring the light of Islam to the whole world, it was the custom of Arabs to bury alive the female baby or child. At that time (called JAHILIYYA) couples preferred to have the male child, for the birth of a girl was considered as a sign of extreme bad luck. Hence the abominable practice of burying the girl baby alive.

But when the Final Messenger of Allah to taught Islam, the religion abolished the practice and proclaimed that the woman had a very special place, in addition to having all the rights enjoyed by men, except that of leadership in the society, because of her nature.

The Messenger of Allah was once asked who to show more respect and support between a father and a mother. When the Prophet replied ‘mother’, the questioner again wanted to know the next, and the Prophet replied as before. Then the person asked the question for the third time and the Prophet still said  ‘the mother’. Apparently not satisfied yet, the person for the fourth time asked the Messenger ‘who then, to which Prophet Muhammad answered that ‘then the father’. This means the mother is three times more important than the father in the family.

However, Islam never promised to offer automatic salvation for the infractions that humans have committed in their life time on earth. It warns that everybody has to account for their actions themselves before God. Prophet Isa (AS) did not die, let alone for others to live as they so please in the present world, only to go to heaven in the next permanent world.

May God eventually fulfil his promise to protect and expand his religion (ISLAM) all over the world of mankind and the jinn.

Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.